Mat Jackson has won Snetterton’s third Dunlop MSA British Touring Car race to take over as championship leader.

Jackson took the lead early on and simply disappeared into the distance to record his fourth win of the season in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus.

The result has moved him past Honda’s Gordon Shedden, who finished back in seventh, and into the series lead. It’s the second time today and the fifth time this season that the championship lead has changed hands. It’s also the first time in his career that Jackson has led the BTCC drivers' standings.

Paul O’Neill finished a superb second in his GoMobileUK.com with tech-speed Chevrolet Cruze ahead of the similar factory RML/Silverline car of Jason Plato.

After two disastrous races earlier in the day, Honda’s Matt Neal came through from 17th on the grid to finish fourth in his Civic ahead of Plato’s team-mate, Alex MacDowall, James Nash (888/Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra) and Shedden – his car crossing the line with damage to a front wing after swiping a foam marker barrier.

Jackson therefore now leads the standings by eight points from Shedden with Neal two behind his team-mate. Plato is a further ten adrift, 11 in front of Nash in fifth.

“It’s a bit surreal,” said Jackson, from Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire. “Yesterday we qualified down in 13th but we’ve chipped away today with a pair of sixths and now this, another win.

“Our car doesn’t quite have the outright pace of the Hondas or the Chevrolets but we just keep racking up the points. With four rounds and 12 races to go we’re still the underdogs – we're a privateer team up against the bigger budget factory teams – but we’re hanging in there.”

Dave Newsham (Special Tuning SEAT Leon) finished the race in eighth but could count himself unfortunate. For many laps he’d held on to third ahead of Plato until the Chevrolet driver found a way by exiting the Brundle-Nelson esses. Entering the final bend he was still in fourth but he slipped wide and allowed MacDowall, Nash and Shedden to drive past him before the line.

Nick Foster (WSR BMW) took ninth and Rob Austin tenth for his first outright points finish in the BTCC in his team’s NGTC-spec Audi A4. Fellow NGTC runner Frank Wrathall who’d starred in races one and two was unable to take part because of radiator damage to his Dynojet Toyota Avensis that it had picked up in race two.

The race again proved highly frustrating for two of the fancied front-runners, Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Vectra) and Robert Collard (WSR BMW). Their cars collided on the opening lap and both lost time – Jordan’s car spinning round – and finished outside the points. Jordan surely needs an exceptionally strong run of results at Knockhill in four weeks' time (Sun 4 Sept) if he’s to keep his battered title hopes alive...

Meanwhile race-winner Jackson’s emotions could not be further removed from those of his team-mate Liam Griffin who crashed out against the barriers at the race’s first corner, one of four retirements from the race.

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